Well, I'm working on something new, and I have a preview of it after a couple of hours of work, so I suppose I could take a new pic of it now, and also demonstrate the grids I constructed to get the lighting right...

Allright, I (sort of) finished the pic.
I'm not sure I like it, but nevermind that.
http://redrival.com/affected/phase/prev.jpg
This here's the sketch-type thing, though at this stage it had been worked on for an hour or two. It has the elements and lighting in place.
http://redrival.com/affected/phase/perspective.jpg
This is the grid I used for the perspective and also to define the point of convergence for the lines used for gettin gthe perspective of the pool of light on the shadow right.
http://redrival.com/affected/phase/shadow.jpg
This is supposed to show how I approximated the shadow the man casts on the floor. The lines converge at a point I extrapolated by drawing two lines that pass through the lower corners of the window, and the corresponding corners of the pool of light. The green lines were used to define the height of each character. I would draw a line from the point of convergence for the pool of light shown in perspective.jpg and have it pass under, say, the center of the left foot. I would then draw a vertical line from that line, where the foot was, and had it end where I estimated, in this case, the knee was at it's highest, as these parts were pretty much on top of each other.I then drew a line from the light source to the vertical line, continuing to meet with the line passing under the foot. Thus I was able to see where the shadow would fall on the floor. I then repeated this where necessary. (The other knee etc.)
http://redrival.com/affected/phase/bars.jpg
This was simple. I drew vertical lines from the bars to the floor, and drew lines from the point of convergence of the pool of light to intersect the bottoms of the vertical lines.
http://redrival.com/affected/phase/glowrefine.jpg
The lighting done, I added some small details.
http://redrival.com/affected/phase/final.jpg
This is what I came out with. I added colour, and put some details on the walls.
There's something odd about it, but I'm lost as to what to do with the image.

The lighting is a bit bizzare, not sharp enough around the mid area next to the character. The wall would also not be as bright as shown if the surroundings are as dark as they are. There's also a bit too much light reflected onto the back of the character. The shirt in particular has some highlights that are almost as bright as would be expected in full sunlight (or whatever light that is, since it doesn't seem to be sunlight). Also, the man's shadow has a bright streak in it. I understand why you'd put that there, but with the angle the light is coming from and the way he's sitting, the light would be blocked by his torso much close to the figure. The figure's shadow also seems to be drifting off to the right more than it should, just slightly. It looks like the shadow of the center bar is also showing in the wake of the man's shadow (next to where the bright spot is) which shouldn't happen with the way the figure is situated. There would be a slight bright spot in his shadow where the lighting is coming though between his right arm and body. You might want to play with adding a shadow onto the figure's left side where the bar shadows it.

Heh, even with all your checking to make sure that the shadows where right, the perspectives on the shadowing on the bars and the figure are different, which seems to of messed you up a bit. Don't focus so much on getting the lighting "exact", since you will mess up sometimes, just try to make it look right.

With my technique, I really don't know how useful this will be to most of you. My process also tends to change a lot with each image, so this isn't how I do everything.

The first four steps are rough through refined sketches. On the fifth, I turned the "pencil" lines black, and did rough colors under them. Then on the next 15 images, I just went through and did finished painting, section by section. I hope this is useful to SOMEONE...at the very least, it makes a cool animation if you play them all through real quickly.

Here goes my steps: http://www.gold.com.br/~recife/images/steps/ . #1 was a draw over my sketch lines (I really hate my sketches) and I used the line tool. In #2 I just colored the picture w/ plain colors. In #3 I used the Dodge/Burn tools and smudged some of the black lines.I really messed up at this stage, but I fixed it later! .In #4 I started to put some detail in the eyes and nose.I also smudged the shadows (dodge/burn) effects.For fixing the eyes and nose I just used the spray with very little opacity over the smudged lines and most times the spray was in "multiply". In #5 I fixed the other eye and smudge the black lines again. In #6 I made the hair using some "homemade" brushes and the smudge tool w/ fingerpaint ON! Used some spray too.I also tried to fix the eyebrowns but I think they pretty much suck! Well, thats it, hope it was usefull... Take care!
-recife-

I found that step-by-step to be very useful, especially in helping me understand how to create quality art in Painter. I've been using Photoshop almost exclusively for the past 4 years or so, maybe it's time I tried something new

I recieved Painter 6.0 a week or so ago. I've tried it a few times only to so get frustrated I've quit the program and started Photoshop. I'm not sure if it's due to me being PS poisoned or just stupid. But I really can't seem to get along with Painter. This really bugs me since Painter is supposed to be the more real-art-look-alike program. And since I started out with graffiti/airbrush/acrylics I'd love to get some more realistic results. Almost everything done in PS gets a kinda "plastic" "too smooth" feel about it in my oppinion... hmm guess I just gotta give painter some more time... any tips n tricks would be much appriciated!

Yes, UNFORTUNATELY, it does look like it was done in Photoshop. :P It definitely came out too plastic-looking, which is my main gripe with most Photoshop stuff. I suppose if there's enough interest, I could do a tutorial on how I, at least, use Painter.

Wakestarr --

Painter definitely takes a lot of getting used to if you're coming from using Photoshop for a long time. You really have to take a completely different approach to it. I suppose I ought to make at least a small tutorial to help everyone who's getting discouraged...

To give you an idea, 99% of what I do in Painter is done using only the brush tool, and various brushes. I seldom bother with filters, layers, or any of that other stuff. Painter excels at being a simulation of traditional art media. But in traditional media, we don't have filters, layers, etc.

But if you REALLY hate that new Painter 6, I'd be glad to take it off your hands for a reasonable price. :P

Dude, I think it would be awesome if you could make a tutorial on how you go about using Painter. I for one would find it incredibly useful, and by the looks of all the other posts, I wouldn't be the only one.

Of course, writing a tutorial is quite a time-consuming thing to do, so we can't be too greedy folks -- If you have time though, PLEASE DO!! :P